I’m proposing an amendment to the Constitution
America and the Barbary Pirates: An International Battle Against an Unconventional Foe by Gerard W. Gawalt – Library of Congress
Thomas Jefferson sent the first American expeditionary force to war to fight jihadists in North Africa. The man most famous for freedom of religious expression is also the man who fought and defeated muslims who were practicing their religion. He stopped muslims from the free practice of their religion.
The First Amendment to the Constitution states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
We in America have tolerated all manner of vile communication, for the sake of protecting our constitutional freedoms. In fact, we can tolerate plenty of silly ideation, as the price of preventing the stifling of legitimate ideas.
We have no trouble living and working alongside all kinds of people. The Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, Star Trek fans, Christians of all flavors, Jews, Atheists and hedonists have usually been able to disagree agreeably, making the idea of “COEXIST” an understandable mantra for peace.
BUT…
There’s one child in the playground who is not like the others. That child believes that the “free practice” of his religion is the subjugation and murder of the any other children who don’t hold his religious beliefs. It’s in his holy book, his book of instructions! This child believes his god is pleased when the child beheads one of the other kids.
We need an amendment to the First Amendment. I would call it “The Jeffersonian Exception.”
It would liberate Congress to “prohibit the free exercise” of islam whenever its clerics begin to preach and promote jihad. It would enable congress to legally shut down the mosque and imprison the clerics of any muslim group in America that has been found supporting or promoting murder, jihad or any of its other abuses.
This would also enable peaceful muslims to practice their religion peacefully, by being able to rely on the law to protect them from death threats from fellow muslims.
So where would this be enforced? It would make sense to enforce the law any time the religion of islam strays over the line and into already existing violent crimes. When a school is teaching its children to kill other children, that school must be shut down.
There should also be retroactive consequences that would be enacted to set things right as an triage, a way to pull us back from the brink. For instance, the Pentagon and all other branches of government, elected offices, including public school teachers or police, should be off limits to any muslim with connections to jihad.
How the details should be worked out is impossible to anticipate, but we must realize from the actions of Thomas Jefferson that the Constitution and its amendments were never intended to act as a naive suicide pact.
♞
